1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a golf putting aid or game.
2. Prior Art
Even professional golfers find that accurate putting is an important part of golf.
Whether playing against one's self or in a competition, a golfer cannot achieve a low score, unless he/she can putt the ball into the holes with a minimum number of strokes.
There have been many proposals for aids to assist golfers in practicing their putting. The simplest is a simulated hole which may be placed on a surface and the golfer putts the ball towards, and hopefully into, the simulated hole. More complicated putting aids may include means which return the golf ball to the golfer when the ball has been successfully putted into the simulated hole.
Examples of the prior art include:
(a) U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,006 (ARBAUGH): This patent is directed to a golf putting game where a plurality of blocks having ball-receiving holes are positioned in spaced-apart relationship on a plane surface. The blocks have ball-receiving holes therein and sloping surfaces which slope upwardly towards the ball-receiving holes. At least some of the blocks have the sloping surfaces thereon extending substantially less than 360.degree. there-around so that the ball is rollable into the holes in these blocks only from the direction which faces the sloping surfaces. The blocks have a plurality of different shapes in order to vary the skill required for directing the ball into the hole in the different blocks.
(b) GB 1491886 (PLAYCO LIMITED): This patent is directed to a putting game apparatus where a portable strip-shaped target member has an inclined rolling surface sloping upwardly from a leading edge of the target towards the back thereof and at least two series of holes in the surface extending along the target member. The first series of holes are placed nearer the leading edge than the second series and are generally of greater diameter than the holes in the second series. The sections may be numbered in a manner analogous to the numbering on a dart board with high and low numbers alternately.
(c) U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,704 (BAYLEY)
This patent is directed to a golf game where different forms of targets spaced from the area, the targets generally being in the form of concentric circles defined by spacers where ramps allow the golf ball to roll into the various target zones.
(d) U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,187 (YAMAGUCHI et al): This golf putting and chipping practice device provides a self-supporting golf target which can rest on a plane surface and is designed to provide a target hole to the golfer with no impediment to a ball entering the hole through a 360.degree. angle. The device has three side walls meeting at one arcuately shaped end, each arcuately shaped ends forming a respective one-third of the target hole.
(et) International Publication No. WO 89/02298 (PERRY et al): This document discloses a game which seeks to replicate a golf course in miniature. Target greens are positioned in a pre-determined pattern and the game is designed to allow for different degrees of difficulty.